ROCKFORD — Each year on the Friday before Christmas Eve, luminary musicians from around the Midwest converge on JustGoods at 201 Seventh St. in Rockford, where they donate their talent for charity. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22, and music will be featured from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

SOUTH BELOIT — The winter solstice marks the longest night and shortest day of the year. On this darkest of nights, the folks at Nature at the Confluence invite you to their Winter Solstice Gathering and Luminary Walk on Thursday, Dec. 21.

• Ukulele Strum & Sing: Try your hand at the ukulele or just sing along with professional musician Pamela Kundert on Monday, Dec. 18, at Lake Geneva Public Library. From 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Kundert will offer a group lesson to teach her audience to play holiday songs.

The Tuesday hike report by Jake Gerlach: On a windy and cold day seven hikers showed up for the Tuesday evening hike. I had been thinking about the wind direction and which way to hike and decided to go down the hill so we could walk across the prairie with the wind at our backs.